Our writer continue on with his study of why Jesus was able to provide our salvation. It wasn’t simply because He was God or even that He became a man. The reason was because He made the right choices every time.

Jesus laid aside His royal robes and stepped down into this mess of humanity. He didn’t have to; He chose to. He made that choice in the beginning of time. God knew we were going to mess up before He even spoke, “Let there be…” So that means He agreed to God’s plan from the start. But agreeing to something in the future is a LOT different than walking it out in the here and now. Read more »

He brought His message to us personally so we would have a living example to follow.

After establishing Jesus’ superiority over the angels we come to His message. Since the messages received from angels were reliable and important, because of His superiority, His message should receive more importance.

“Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it” (verse 1). To start with, what is the “therefore” there for? This “therefore” refers to the fact just established; Jesus’ superiority to the angels. So what Jesus said holds more importance that the whole list of what angels have shared down through history.

This DOES NOT make the previous messages brought by angels wrong or worthless. What it does mean is that Jesus’ message trumps all else. Because of the overwhelming evidence of His relationship to God, His message carries authority that the angels messages couldn’t. Read more »

We have come to the book of Hebrews. Our author introduces us to the foundational truth of the gospel. Jesus is God’s Son and as such, holds authority over all things.

Jesus is higher than any created being because He was with God in the beginning and is author of that creation. Some of the language used describing Jesus as “having become”, “inherited”, and “begotten” could lead some to say that Jesus was created instead of Creator. That would be a TOTAL misunderstanding of the truth.

God’s use of these terms comes in respect to our timeline of events. Jesus was “begotten” as a man at the point in time when He was placed as an embryo in Mary’s womb. He existed before that but His being took on another aspect at that time. Read more »

Paul concludes his letter to Philemon. He doesn’t make “one last plea” for Onesimus. He leaves the matter in Philemon’s and God’s hands.

Paul gave his final plea for Onesimus in verse 21; “Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.” That confidence, faith, allows him to close his letter in his usual style. He sends greetings from all those around him and prays for Jesus’ grace to be on Philemon’s spirit.

That last prayer, so typical of Paul, could also be taken as a reminder too. Jesus showed extraordinary grace for each of us when he made His ultimate sacrifice. Is Paul reminding Philemon of that grace and asking for the same kind of grace from him? Read more »

Paul finally gets to the heart of the matter in his letter. He is making an impassioned plea on behalf of a man he has come to care deeply about; Onesimus.

A new relationship built because of obedience.

Onesimus was a runaway slave. As such, he could have legally been put to death if caught. He took his life in his hands every day while walking the streets of Rome. We don’t know how long he had been on the run or even how he came across Paul, but his life changed when he did. We are not even told if he left Philemon before or after Philemon’s becoming a believer.

What we can infer from Paul’s letter about Onesimus’ history is that he was “useless” to Philemon as a servant. I’m assuming that Onesimus conveyed this valuation of himself to Paul during their time together. He was apparently very discontent being a slave. You would have to be to be willing to risk your life by running away. Read more »